The Long Drift

This sequel to The Big Lonely easily surpasses its predecessor in style and emotional sincerity. Narrator Casey Wills, only a youth in the first volume, is now a grizzled veteran who, like many others, spent his youth and energy looking at the south end of northbound cows and seeing the country from between the ears of a horse. He longs to buy himself a small spread and settle down. While a business deal to capture wild horses and sell them to waiting Boomers in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 doesn't proceed smoothly (and costs the life of a friend), it does give him the necessary capital. Unfortunately, he spends the money in a search for the missing husband of Miroux Sevier, with whom he has fallen in love. To make matters worse, he finds the man, and a sense of spousal duty keeps Miroux with her husband. One last cow drive turns disastrous, and one of the pokes involved sets out to track down and kill the man responsible. Casey once again gets sucked in and may end up losing his liberty--or his life. Brown drives the novel along like a Saturday-afternoon serial. Period detail, credible dialogue and an intimate knowledge of the life of a herder (monotony punctuated by frenzied activity and danger) enliven this well-told tale. (May)